The Boston Globe wanted readers to think it had a scoop on its Bain Capitol story on July 12. But in the story claiming Romney is lying about leaving Bain in 1999, the Boston Globe not only used the work of other publications and did so without attribution (we call that plagiarism) but, on top of that, the sources used are simply wrong in the claim that Romney stayed at Bain three years after he said he left. It’s all around newspaper fail.

The Boston Globe was excited to push its story (subscription required), a tale of gotcha journalism where the GOP candidate was “proven” to have lied about saying he left Bain Capitol in 1999. The Globe claims they “found” evidence that he was actually there, actively managing the company until as late as 2002. If this were true, Romney wouldn’t just be a liar but he’d also be in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Says the Boston Globe,

Mitt Romney has repeatedly sought to distance himself from some business dealings at Bain Capital by asserting that he left the firm in February 1999, but a review of public records shows that his authority lingered for three more years as Bain repeatedly listed him on government filings as the man in charge. Until 2002, when Romney and Bain Capital finalized a severance agreement, he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president,” according to SEC documents. The description was applied even to the creation of five new Bain partnerships a full three years after Romney has said he relinquished all control.

If this were all true, it would be a pretty bad thing for the candidate. Fortunately for Mitt and unfortunately for the screaming headline of the Boston Globe, it isn’t true. Mitt really did stop managing Bain Capitol in 1999 when he left the company to take over the struggling Winter Olympics.

Even FactCheck.org, no friend to Republicans, has debunked claims that Romney was actively controlling Bain after 1999. The Obama campaign has repeatedly claimed that Obama managed Bain after 1999, but FactCheck says Obama is all wet.

And after reviewing evidence cited by the Obama campaign, we reaffirm our conclusion that Romney left the helm of Bain Capital when he took a leave of absence in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics – as he has said repeatedly — and never returned to active management.

Of course, there is little doubt that Romney’s name appears on some Bain documents after the 1999 date. But the issue isn’t whether Romney was completely cut off from Bain but whether, as he’s consistently said, he was no longer controlling Bain Capital.

After the Globe story, the Romney campaign told CNN that contrary to the Globe’s claims, Mitt’s Bain story has all been documented.

“Although Governor Romney was not involved with Bain Capital after he left to head the Winter Olympics in 1999, he was still listed on some technical filings,” the official said. “This is nothing more than a quirk in the law. When Governor Romney took over the Olympics, he was not involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way. He was too busy working to make the Olympic Games among the most successful ever held.”

The facts show that Mitt had turned over his control of Bain to others. The Globe is just not reporting full context in order to get a sensational headline.

It gets worse for the Boston Globe, though.

As soon as the Globe’s story hit the morning of July 12, a few other publications thought they saw something that looked familiar. In fact, they were right. As it turned out the Globe lifted the work of a few other journalists without bothering to give those writers and publications credit. We call that plagiarism, right?

The sources the Globe lifted the info from is also telling. Two extremely left-wing sources served as the Globe’s crib sheet. Left-wing writer David Corn of Mother Jones Magazine, a far left muckraker, was one of them. The second was the George Soros-funded Talking Points Memo website.

With biased, far left sources like that serving as the Globe’s “research department” it’s no wonder the Globe was not too keen on revealing them to its readers.

The Globe also quotes a former SEC commissioner on how bad this all is for Romney. The woman named Roberta Karmel is a bit of a biased source, though. Not only was she a Jimmy Carter appointee to the SEC, but she’s described herself as a “child of the New Deal.” It should be noted that until Obama came along, Franklin Roosevelt was the most anti-Business President we’ve ever had and used his New Deal policies to devastate the business sector.

Can we rely on Ms. Karmel, a woman that admittedly idolizes the thoroughly anti-business New Deal, to be a serious, unbiased source?

The Globe seems to have given itself a black eye with this biased, badly sourced, and simply untrue attack on Mitt Romney.
____________“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Comments

comments

Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

We use Facebook comments, but they can sometimes take quite a while to load. So, be patient. Thanks.

Admin

-By Warner Todd Huston
The Boston Globe wanted readers to think it had a scoop on its Bain Capitol story on July 12. But in the story claiming Romney is lying about leaving Bain in 1999, the Boston Glob